Captain Razaleigh Bansawan, of the 6th Infantry Division, said the bomb went off at around 10.36 a.m. in the town of Carmen in North Cotabato province. He said the wounded were rushed to hospital for shrapnel wounds.

“(Members of the army’s) Explosive Ordnance Division is in the area conducting post-blast investigation while checkpoint operations are also emplaced for possible apprehension of the perpetrators,” Bansawan told the Mindanao Examiner.

Bansawan did not say who were behind the blast or the motive of the attack and no group or individual claimed responsibility for the explosion. But previous attacks had been largely blamed by the police and military to Moro rebels.

Last month, a bomb attack on a provincial bus killed 7 people and injured more than a dozen in North Cotabato’s Matalam town

The bomb apparently went off from the baggage compartment of the bus while it was travelling to Cagayan del Oro City from Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province.

In August, armed men disguised as policemen also torched a provincial bus after killing its driver and two of-duty police officers at a road block in Lanao del Norte’s Kapatagan town. Several bomb attacks on provincial buses, blamed to rebels extorting money, also occurred in recent years in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)